Orthan
by throgan
Summary: Arya meets a mage while in prison before Eragon saves her and they become friends. Then they escape and they meet Eragon on the way. He becomes jealous of Orthan, who is going with them to ellesmera. There is a lot of trouble.
1. Prison And A New Companion

Orthan looked at the destruction that was once his village. He needed to escape. He heard a leaf crackle to his left. Orthan looked up as someone started to talk. "Magician, join Galbatorix willingly, or we will force you to." The shade said.

"I will never join Galbatorix. I will kill him." Orthan said coldly. He tried to find a way out of this situation. Damn, I can't beat a shade, he thought. "I think we should have a magic battle. After all, that is why you want me right. If I'm not good enough for you, let me go." He knew there was almost no chance that this would work, but it was the only thing that he could think of. If he lost, they would most likely take him to a prison somewhere. Then, he could escape.

The shade raised his hand. Orthan showed no sign of resistance. "Brsingr!" Orthan's cloths were set aflame. He tried not to scream in pain, but couldn't stop the groan of agony that came out. He slowly let the darkness overcome him. As the shade watched, the boy fell to his knees unconscious.

Arya's POV

Arya's head snapped towards the prison door. She saw the shade carrying a human boy on his shoulder. The boy was red everywhere, with blisters all over. The shade dropped him onto the floor, causing him to groan in pain. Then the shade looked at her. "The offer still stands, elf. Join Galbatorix or tell us where the elves are, or you will die."

"I will never join Galbatorix. I will kill him." Arya said coldly. Those were two things she would never do.

The shade feigned surprise. "That was exactly what the boy said" he said evilly. Arya's eyes widened and turned to look at the boy. This human had defied a shade. Said shade watched as she examined the human. He sneered in disgust.

After the shade left, Arya looked at the child more closely. He had a well muscled body, dark brown hair, and scars everywhere. She decided not to wake him up and wait instead. She glanced at him one last time before she closed her own eyes and slept.

Orthan's POV

Orthan opened his eyes and groaned. He felt horrible. Catching on fire was definitely not the smartest thing to do. He looked at his surrounding and tried to figure out where he was. His eyes darkened as recognition hit him. He was in a prison cell. "Damn shade." He whispered to himself, not knowing that someone was watching him. That is until he saw a shadow move. He turned his head to the left, much like he had done with the shade. What he saw surprised him so much that he almost fell on his face.

An elf! How the hell had the shade gotten an elf? Though she looked like she had taken a beating, she was still the most beautiful person he had ever seen, but he had learned long ago to hide your feelings and not to trust people that you don't know.

He looked at her with no emotion on his face and he blocked his mind with his strongest barrier. "Who are you." They both asked at the same time. Their eyes narrowed in caution as they watch each other. Orthan decided to answer first. "I'm Orthan, and you are?" was his reply. "I am Arya." She answered. Orthan nodded his head painfully and looked at her wounds; it looked like there were thousands of little scars and scabs across her skin. "How did you get those? It looks like a whip mark. I could heal them if you want." He said. It could have been personal to her, but he was too curious. Had she gotten them in here? Her eyes widened a fraction and she stared at him.

Did she think I would have just left her like that? If so, she must have been in here for a while now, he thought. She looked down at the floor, whispering something to herself. Finally, she nodded her head. He was surprised that she accepted his offer and she didn't even know him.

Orthan slowly walked up to her and placed his hand on her arm. Her smooth skin was comforting and warm to the touch. "Waise Heill" he said softly. He then healed her other arm. He hesitated to heal the rest of her body though, he did not know if she would like it if he saw her bare back. His hand started towards her leather shirts strap, and she made no move to stop him.

When Orthan reached the strap, he unlaced it and watched as Arya grabbed the front part of her shirt and held it to her chest to stop it from falling on the ground. He looked back at her back and put his hand on where the scabs were and healed them just like he did with her arms. Once there were only a few wounds left, Orthan stopped healing and laced her shirt back up. Then he plopped down on the bench near the wall, exhausted. He could hardly move, it felt like he had been running for miles.

He didn't notice that Arya looked relieved. She looked at him, "Thank you" she said it so softly that Orthan almost didn't hear her. Orthan was too tired to reply, but he did manage to nod his head. "I think I might be able to heal your wounds now that you've healed me.

This time, it was Orthan's turn to be surprised. He started at her, not quite believing what he had heard. He was speechless, so he just nodded his head in acceptance. She walked towards him, and started with his arms, just like he did. Then she moved to his shirt and started to take it off. It came off easily and she put it onto the bench next to where he sat. She placed her hand on his back and healed all of the wounds there. Orthan relaxed a little; for he felt better then he had in weeks. "Thank you" he said, almost as softly as Arya had.

"Now is the time for questions. You defied the shade, why?" she asked him. "Well that's easy. First of all, he burned my village, Second of all, he asked me to join Galbatorix. That's never going to happen. Third of all, I will never bow down to a shade." He said the last sentence coldly. "So, what did you do to get in here?" he asked. "I refused to tell him where the elves were, I had a dragon egg stolen from the king," at this Orthan perked up a little. "Now I have no idea where the egg is, hopefully safe though." She answered.

How did she get a dragon egg from the king? That would probably be almost impossible. Imagine if it hatched for a rider that was against the king. He voiced his thoughts out loud. "How did you steel a dragon egg from the king? It seems like that would be impossible, and what if it hatched for someone?" He asked her in one big breath.

"The elves sent a dragon rider to take the egg before the fall of the riders. When we got the egg, two companions and I brought it between the dwarves and the elves to see if it would hatch, which it didn't. If it has finally hatched for someone, then we can only hope that he or she is not evil." Arya said.

Orthan smirked, "I was going to wait until something important happens to escape, and I'd say this was important. I think I could be ready to escape in a week or so. Also, I know this is kind of a big favor, considering that we don't even know each other, but will you teach me magic before we escape? I know hardly any magic at all other than a few words, and I'm okay at using a sword but I could definitely use improvement." He asked hopefully, but really not expecting the answer to be yes. Then of course, she said yes.

Orthan smiled happily when he heard her answer. "Great, when can we start?" he asked excitedly. "Well we can start with jierda. This word in the ancient language means break, okay. We can start by trying to break the bench and then I'll put it back together so that we can do it again. My only condition" she said impatiently "is that you have to listen to what I say. You can try it now." She said this as if speaking to a child. Orthan nodded his head.

Orthan looked at the bench and pushed on the barrier that was hiding the magic. In less than a second, he felt the magic flood his head and said the word that Arya had taught him. "Jierda." He said firmly. The bench broke a little bit. It splintered to about half way through. "That's good for a first try. Most people only manage to get a few splinters out of it at first." She fixed the bench and told him to try it again. He once again got his magic ready and concentrated on the bench. "Jierda" he tried again. This time it was so close to fully broken that he was slightly disappointed. There was only about one millimeter left of the wood that wasn't broken.

They had tried it two more times before he finally managed. He smiled a little to himself. Maybe prison isn't so bad after all. He thought.

Please read and review, I know the chapter is kind of short, but I'm not very good at writing long chapters, Hope you like the story though.


	2. Torture

Orthan had been welcomed to the land of dreams easily that night, considering practicing a new spell had left him tired. He opened his eyes, and pushed himself upright from the floor. He stretched his back as if he were a cat, moving as smoothly as you could while stretching. Once he got an actual look at his surroundings, the first thing he noticed was that Arya was still asleep. She looks too peaceful to be in prison. He thought to himself.

Orthan stood up shakily, and looked at the bench he had broken the night before. He wondered for a second, how Arya had been caught. I mean sure, she wasn't in the elf city, where ever it is, but she couldn't have just gone out without any protection. That's almost suicide, especially with a dragon egg. He thought as he saw said elf start to shift her position. He watched her carefully, looking to see if she had woken up. She had. Her eyes opened suddenly, showing the dark forest green of her eyes.

She surveyed her surroundings as she was getting up. When her eyes landed on him, she nodded her head slightly. He nodded back at her and thought back to the wounds that he had healed earlier. He figured that they had most likely come from torture, which meant that they were going to come back soon and torture the both of them.

Then, as if finishing his thoughts, they heard a commotion outside. The shade walked up to their prison cell, soldiers making a circle around him. Orthan watched as the shade unlocked the door and stalked in. He looked between the two of them, his eyes narrowing. "I can see that you have healed each other. This will only double your torture. I will make sure you will not be able to use magic anymore." He motioned for his soldiers to take him and Arya somewhere.

The soldiers swarmed the sell and grabbed onto both of their arms. They were dragged out of their cell's door and down the hall. Orthan looked into the cells as he passed them. Some of them were empty; some had people that looked starved and beaten, which they probably were. After a few minutes of being dragged, they came to a stop in front of a large steel door. One of the soldiers moved ahead and swung it open.

Orthan got a good look at what was inside of the dark torture room. Whips were stacked shelves, knives were hung on hooks, it looked like hundreds of sharp and dangerous tools were everywhere. He ripped his eyes off of the tools as he was shoved into the wall. Orthan's head hit the wall and he groaned a little.

The soldiers grabbed some shackles that Orthan hadn't noticed and put them around his wrists. He struggled to get his wrists out of the shackles, but they were too tight around his. He tried to turn his head around to see what they were doing, but his head wasn't flexible enough.

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Arya's POV

Arya watched as Orthan was dragged into the all too familiar torture room. She knew what they were going to do to them, and she knew that they would not be able to do anything by the time the torture was done.

As the soldiers put her in shackles, she heard Orthan groan in pain. This meant that they were going to start the real torture soon. She closed her eyes slowly, expecting to hear the crack of a whip at any second. She did hear the crack, but not the pain. Her head jerked up in surprise, but she still did not open her eyes. They had started on Orthan first. Probably to see if they could break him first, because they've already tried to get something out of me before. She thought.

She heard a second crack this time she did feel the pain. Arya muffled her cry of pain as more lashes were rained upon the two of them. She arched her back a little, trying to keep her eyes closed. She had discovered in one of her earlier tortures that if your eyes were close, the pain wasn't as bad.

The whipping stopped after a half an hour, but Arya knew there would be more. She tried to look over her shoulder, but the pain that shot down her spine stopped her. She tried again, but the pain got worse every time. She heard the soldiers talking silently to themselves in their rough voices.

Then there was silence, pure silence. The soldiers seemed to have disappeared. That is until Arya heard a knife being drawn. She couldn't help but open her eyes this time; they had never used a knife in earlier torture sessions. Her eyes grew cold as she heard flesh being torn and cries of pain.

She heard the soldiers laughing in delight, taking turns in cutting into him. Arya shook her head, disgusted that anyone could be happy to do this. After she had heard Orthan's cries of pain for an hour, she heard footsteps walking towards her. She braced herself for the pain that she was sure was worse than a whip.

She looked ahead, waiting for them to reach her. When they did, one of them came close to her and whispered "It's your turn now, elf." She braced herself for the pain, but when it did, not even she could muffle the screams of pain that escaped her lips. It was as if she was being poked with 10 inch needles on every inch of her body.

As she arched her back in pain, she could feel the knife cutting through her flesh and veins. She felt the warmth of her own blood flow down her back, dripping onto the cold stone floor. It formed a puddle next to the soldiers feet, almost looking like it was asking for more blood to make it grow. It seemed to shine evilly as the torch light reflected off of it.

This continued for about an hour, all the while, Arya screaming in pain. When the soldiers stopped, she was grateful. To her, it had seemed like forever. She waited for the soldiers to take away the shackles that held her. When they did, her eyes darkened and she glared at them with such a fury that some of them hesitated.

They grabbed her by the arms roughly and dragged her right through the puddle of blood that hungered for more. Arya didn't care about the blood though; she had seen much more blood then this before. All she felt was the pain on her back that just seemed to worsen every second.

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Orthan's POV

Orthan listened painfully as he heard the beautiful yet dreadful scream that Arya made. At first he could hear the sound of the knife cutting through flesh, but her screams had quickly drowned that out.

Orthan had never felt so much pain in his life. He had thought that the pain he felt when the shade set him on fire was horrible, and it was, but it was nothing compared to what he felt a few moments ago. It felt as if he was being cut in half. He had felt his blood flow down his back and puddle up next to his feet. It seemed to shine evilly in the torch light.

Orthan looked up as he heard shackles being opened. Then heard dragging feet and footsteps coming towards him. He felt his shackles loosen and then fall off, dangling on the wall. They grabbed him by the arm roughly and dragged him to the doors that let out of the dark and dank torture room.

He saw Arya being held up by the soldiers, barely moving a muscle. He looked away as the soldier barked out an order. A few seconds later, the giant doors creaked open. As the soldiers started to drag them away from the room, he looked ahead towards where their cell was.

When they reached the cell, one of the soldiers pushed the door open and the ones holding them shoved them in. Orthan landed on the ground, his head smashing onto the bench that was now fixed.

He closed his eyes as he saw darkness closing in on his mind. As he fell unconscious from the pain, the last thing he saw was Arya looking at him weakly.

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Orthan opened his eyes a crack, letting the light slowly flood his vision, so as not to blind him. As they became fully opened, the first thing he noticed Arya lying on the ground, seemingly asleep. The second thing he noticed was the pain that was running through his whole body. He felt horrible. His back felt like it had been dissected, which he realized was pretty much what had happened, now that he thought about it.

Orthan tried to crawl next to Arya, but groaned as pain shot through his back. He collapsed onto his belly, which thankfully wasn't didn't have many wounds. He decided to wait a few minutes before he tried to do anything else.

Orthan tried to ignore the pain that went through his body, but was having a hard time of it. He started counting how many bars there were on the cell door. 1…2…3…4…5…6. He kept counting until he was sure he had the right answer. There were 16 bars. Orthan laughed to himself, this has got to be the saddest thing I've ever seen, counting how many bars are on your prison door to pass the time. He chuckled again.

Maybe I can crawl to her now. He thought. Orthan pushed himself off of his stomach, and got on his knees. He moved forward a little, checking to see if it still hurt as much as before. It did, so Orthan just sucked it up and crawled over to Arya. By the time he was there, he was breathing hard.

Orthan unlaced her shirt and saw what the knife had done to her. The soldiers seemed to have shaped something, but he couldn't tell what. There was too much blood and grime. He hoped he had enough strength to heal at least the injury that the knife had made.

He summoned his magic and concentrated everything he had on healing her wound. "Wais Heill!" he said firmly. He immediately felt the draining effects of using magic, especially when he was so weak. He kept his focus on what he was doing and watched as threads of new skin weaved itself over the wound. When he was done, he collapsed onto the floor, trying to stay conscious. He didn't get to see what the shape was before he collapsed, but whatever it was, he hoped he didn't have it too. Ok, maybe prison is that bad after all. He thought to himself. Then he gave in to the land of darkness.


	3. escape

Arya opened her eyes, expecting pain to erupt down her back. When it didn't, she tensed into a fighting position. This either meant that they had healed her and gotten her ready for another torture session, or Orthan had healed her, which she highly doubted considering what state he was in. Unless that's why he's unconscious. She thought. She crawled over to him, feeling the rough scabs on her body rubbing against the dirty floor.

When she reached him, she took off his shirt to see if they had healed him also. She looked at the bloody wounds that were all over his body. They hadn't healed Orthan, so he must have healed her. She looked at him gratefully, stunned that he would do that. Well, I might as well heal him; I am in his debt after all.

She reached for her magic and said the words of healing. "Wais Heill" she whispered softly. Arya watched silently as his wounds were over lapped by new skin. The wounds were healed, but many of them turned into scars. The one that was most visible was the wound that the knife had caused. Arya gasped when she saw it. It was the shape of a dragon with a sword through its neck. She stumbled backwards a little, hoping she didn't have the same mark.

She had to get out of here right now, but she couldn't just leave him here. She sighed, looking at the limp form of Orthan. She put his shirt back onto his scarred form, and woke him up with magic. He blinked, and then stood up. He looked at her, as if she had just done the greatest thing he had ever seen.

"We're escaping now" she told him. He immediately tensed, ready to use magic at the slightest need. "Jierda" she said softly. The prison door broke immediately, and they both ran out. Seeing no guards, they kept running until they reached stairs. They climbed up it, reaching a room that had tons of weapons. They stepped into it carefully, looking to see if anyone was in it. When they didn't see anyone, Arya grabbed her bow and sword off of the wall, and got an extra bow for Orthan.

Orthan took the extra bow from her hands and grabbed some arrows from the table. He strapped both the bow and arrows onto his back and ran out of the room, not waiting for anyone to show up. Arya ran ahead of him reaching out with her mind to see of any one was coming. Two guards were running straight towards them and Arya stopped to wait for them. When they came into view, both Arya and Orthan knocked an arrow and shot the two soldiers. They cried in pain, but no one seemed to have heard.

They ran down another set of stairs, hoping it lead outside. It did, and they broke open the doors with magic. But they were far from out. They were in the middle of the street in Gilead. People were staring at them, which wasn't surprising, considering they were covered in scars and she was an elf.

They ignored the stares and shot through the crowd, weaving between people like thread. They started hearing shouts and armor clinking against armor. Soldiers were running after them. They ran faster, trying to at least get out of the main city before they fought the soldiers. They saw the gates that lead out of the city and they both put on bursts of speed. "Jierda" Arya heard Orthan yelled. The gate blew to pieces but Arya kept running. After running about a league, Arya stopped and drew her sword. She turned around in a fighting stance. She saw in the corner of her eye Orthan pull out his bow and knock an arrow. When the soldiers came into view Orthan took aim and shot. He hit one in the shoulder.

There were only nine left now. Arya took a step forward and sliced ones throat. She parried a blow from another one and stabbed him in the stomach. She glanced at Orthan for a second and saw his stunned face before he shook it off. A few seconds later she saw an arrow hit a soldier in the neck. This lasted for about five minutes before all of the soldiers were dead.

Orthan walked up to her, stunned. "That was amazing." He said quietly. Arya looked at him and said, "That was normal for an elf." She said simply. Orthan shook his head, but didn't say anything else.

They walked on in silence for a bit, staying off of the path for awhile before it started to get dark out. They could hardly see Gilead anymore when they decided to make camp in a clearing. Arya made a small ditch in the ground while Orthan got wood. When he came back, he put it in the ditch and whispered "Brsingr" The wood lit up with fire, flickering evilly.

Arya sat down by the fire grimly, making leaves scratch against each other. "Now that Galbatorix is after us, you'll have to know more magic" she said grimly. "I might as well teach you slytha" she said. "Slytha means sleep in the ancient language. Go find a small animal and try it." She said.

Orthan stood up and walked into the woods and saw a squirrel scurrying up a tree He picked it up gently, but firmly enough that it couldn't escape. He walked back to the fire and sat down. He called on his magic and focused on the squirrel and said "Slytha" The squirrel's eyes fluttered close for a second, but it woke up two seconds later. Orthan felt a slight drain come from using the spell. He tried it again, but this time he concentrated everything he had on it. "Slytha" He said again. The squirrel's eyes fell closed almost immediately, and this time it didn't wake up. Orthan felt its body become relaxed and limp.

Arya was slightly surprised; she had definitely not expected him to manage it on his second try. "That was better than I expected" she even smiled wryly. "You are a quick learner." Orthan nodded his head

"Can you make plants fall asleep?" he asked. Arya nodded her head, but inside she was shocked. She had never thought about trying that before. "Go try it." She said. She watched him carefully as he got up and walked up to a sapling about half his size. She stared intensely at the tree, wanting to see the full results. She heard him murmur the word under his breath and watched, fascinated, as the tree sagged to the ground.

Arya watched Orthan reach out his hand and touch the now sleeping tree. She reached out with her mind, and touched the tree. It seemed to be growing faster then it was before. It also seemed to be stronger. It seemed that putting a tree to sleep had the same results as putting a person to sleep.

Arya's mind was still in the tree when it started to wake up. Its branches started to straighten again and to her it felt like she was stretching. She was amazed. With this knowledge, the elves could do so much more. She watched Orthan examine the tree and thought, "Yes, you will be a great ally."

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Arya cracked open her eyes slowly, letting the sun have time to settle into her eyes. She shook her head to clear the tiredness out of her mind and sat up. She looked over to where Orthan's bed was and found that he had already gotten up. He was next to the tree he had put to sleep the day before, practicing the spell again and again. She was surprised he hadn't crumpled from exhaustion already.

Arya walked over to him, moving almost like a cat. "We must leave." She said emotionlessly. Orthan turned around, slightly surprised to hear her voice so near without him knowing. He eyed her disdainfully before stalking over to his dirt made bed. As she walked back also, she said "You should always be on your alert." Maybe just a little coldly. "Yes ma'am." He replied. Arya couldn't help but arch her eyebrows at that one.

When the fire had been put out, they started walking away from Gilead again, hoping the shade hadn't sent out soldiers to find them. They walked silently, each one wrapped up in their own thoughts. That is, until a giant shadow fell across them. Arya looked up, seeing blue not of the sky. She drew her sword swiftly, her eyes suddenly on the alert. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Orthan raise his hands, ready to use magic. She also saw his eyes widen as he figured out what he was looking at, which was a dragon.

Arya watched carefully as she saw someone move on top of a saddle that was strapped onto the dragon. Then that person jumped off of the dragon, landing softly. He also held his hand up as if ready to use magic, even though he had had sword strapped to his waist. He also looked very young, maybe sixteen or seventeen.

Next to him the dragon roared threateningly, opening her giant maw. Razor sharp teeth pointed out, looking almost like daggers. Neither Arya nor Orthan even flinched a muscle. Arya tensed as the boy took a step forward and spoke "Who are you? What do you want?" Her eyes narrowed to slits in anger. Who was he to land in front of them with a dragon and then ask them who they were.

Arya voiced her thoughts "Who are we? You land in front of us with a dragon and you ask us who we are? Who do you think you are?" she said coldly. The boy just sat there stunned, as if nobody had ever said something like that to him before. This just infuriated her further, but she didn't say anymore.

He took a few more steps forward, getting close enough to see them clearly. Arya made sure her hair obscured her ears so as to not let him know that she was an elf. Then she noticed that the boy had put his hand down. Idiot, she thought. At least Orthan hadn't let his guard drop before he even knew who she was. Then, there was silence.

After a while, Arya got impatient and stepped forward, anticipating an attack. After none came, she sheathed her sword quietly. "Well, who are you? What is your allegiance?" she asked, exasperation and annoyance possessing her voice. The boy stood there for a moment longer, hesitation sticking out like a rose amongst dirt in his hazel eyes.

"I am Eragon and my allegiance is against the king. I got my dragon when I was hunting. There was a flash and then her egg appeared. Brom the storyteller taught me some magic, but he got killed by the raazac." He answered firmly. Arya could tell it was the truth, even without reading his mind.

Figuring he was no threat and could make a good ally, she stepped forward again and said "I am Arya." She said simply. Then Orthan stepped forward and introduced himself also.

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Orthan was entranced by the dragon, Saphira. Every time he looked at her, some part of his mind seemed to escape from a cage and then a memory would flash before his eyes. It was as if they were flashbacks of someone else's mind, but still his own. The memories were all of his birthdays, from ten to ninety-seven. That was what confused him. He was only twenty three years old.

He couldn't figure it out. How could he be ninety-seven? He wanted to figure this out, but when he saw movement on her back, he raised his hand again, ready to use magic. "Who are you hiding on Saphira's back?" He asked with a threatening tone. Eragon looked at his raised hand and then at Saphira. Just then, someone jumped off of her back and stalked towards them cautiously. He seems more careful and experienced then Eragon. He thought. Then he saw the mans eyes and realized he had been through a personal battle just as bad as Arya's and his. The man already had a small amount of respect.


End file.
